


Scenes from the Apocalypse

by ElasticElla



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1527152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jennifer starts the apocalypse, in five parts. (...really four and a half as the first part is a prologue)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> _for kaliforever47_  
> 

Jennifer had made quite a few mistakes in her life. She had burnt up her spice cabinet once after leaving the toaster oven on, and had to replace tons of rare herbs. Dating Derek, however briefly, had also been foolish- he wasn't the Alpha she needed, even if she had wanted him. Allowing Kali to slaughter their pack and join Deucalion was one of the big ones. But they all dwarfed in comparison to her latest misstep, because she had just rendered humanity extinct. 

It had started with the simple goal of killing Deucalion. The execution happened to also involve sacrificing a dozen other people for power, but it was worth it. He was a complete megalomaniac, and had turned other wolves to murder those they wouldn't ordinarily. (Kali had always been willing to kill of course, but to raise her claws to _her_?) He needed to be stopped, and it was all for the greater good, he was bound to keep expanding his pack.

It was almost too easy to lure the demon wolf into a meeting with a Darach- who wouldn't prefer her to a druid who hesitated to get her hands dirty? Her former lover was the only other one there, and Jennifer didn't bother with any pretense, five knives sailing through the air to stab him. Kali made the deathblow, her claws tearing his throat open, and it tasted like the beginning of an apology. 

Kali wore a small smile and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by her previous packmates appearing- the twins and Ennis. 

"Did you think we wouldn't feel it?" Ethan growled, morphing with his twin. 

"Did you think we wouldn't come after you?" the two said as they stomped closer, "That we wouldn't take the power?" 

Ennis didn't bother saying anything, just morphing into his Alpha form and abruptly attacking her. Teeth and claws filled her vision as Kali twisted and sprung, light on her feet and evasive. She got a few decent hits in before the twins' fist crashed into her skull. She moaned at the pain, and Jennifer roared. Kali passed out then, missing the world's turning point. 

Full of rage, Jennifer called on her powers, and lightning cut through the twins and Ennis, splitting the bodies in half. Their blood quickly pooled in the room, and Jennifer felt faint but ignored it, carrying Kali back to her apartment. She yanked on her power once Kali was on the couch, and it came to her bidding far faster than usual. Ignoring the anomaly, Jennifer healed Kali's skull as its own progress had been slow. Kali twitched in her sleep, and Jennifer passed out in the chair beside her quickly- she had never called for so much power within one day before. 

Miles away, the nemeton's roots were glowing and spreading as fast as they had during its creation.


	2. Death

The morning of the human apocalypse came easily for Jennifer and Kali. They awoke closer to noon, and Kali's nose was full of Jennifer. There was a faint trace of death underneath, and she asked to use Jen's shower. As Kali soaped up, confused as to why the scent wasn't scrubbing off and feeling like Lady Macbeth, Jennifer whipped up some breakfast. She was flipping pancakes and decidedly not thinking about her ex-lover in the shower, or all the papers she had to grade for Monday. Jen switched the TV on for a distraction, but only static came through. She tried other channels, but everything was fuzzy and she flicked it off. Making a mental note to call the cable company, she added some chocolate chips to the pancakes. It was a special occasion after all- they hadn't shared breakfast in years. 

Kali finally gave up on scrubbing out the scent, attributing it to scent memory, and headed down to the kitchen. 

Jennifer threw her a smile, "Do you want chocolate chip or plain?" 

"Chocolate chip please," Kali said with a grin, confirming she still had her sweet tooth. The meal was beyond surreal. Somehow Kali was back to sitting at her counter for breakfast, something they'd done a million times. Her heart beat painfully at how close this was to before. Kali still dosed her chocolate chip pancakes in syrup, and didn't drink orange juice until she was done eating. She still didn't bother with small talk- and Jennifer wasn't about to start talking about the wolves she killed yesterday, or what exactly she got up to when Kali left her- so the two ate in silence. 

It wasn't until Deaton came to her doorstep that reality came crashing back in. 

Jennifer raised her eyebrow, "Alan, what a surprise. How can I help you?" 

His eyes flickered between her and the werewolf over her shoulder, and he said in a stunned tone, "You don't know yet..."

"Excuse me?" Jennifer asked sharply, her eyes cataloguing his mussed appearance. 

"The nemeton is overreaching, it's draining power from all that are near its roots. Humans can't survive that kind of power drain, they don't replenish like the supernatural do," Deaton said. 

"How far is it overreaching? Kali asked, "I mean, now that you say it, it explains why my energy's low but..."

"All of North America," Deaton answered honestly, and Jennifer trembled.

"I need to sit down, come in," she said, not bothering to close the door before collapsing on their couch. 

"Have any humans...?" Jennifer asked softly, her mind racing through her family, her students, the random people she interacted with at the grocery store and the bank. 

"Not that I know of," he answered crisply, "but now, you need to kill the nemeton."

~~~

They go into town against Deaton's advice. Jennifer needs to see what she did, what she caused for Kali. It's worth it she knows, because she's selfish and the idea of living without Kali, with Kali dead, is far more painful than a few million deaths. (No one would ever accuse her of being utilitarian.) If before someone told her to pick between her parents and Kali, she wouldn't have been able to. But now that the choice has been taken from her she knows it's Kali. And how fucked up is that? The woman who once tried to kill her, the woman who put power before her life, and yet... She knows it's not healthy, but she's still desperately in love with her.

The moment they were close Jennifer knew it was real, Kali couldn't help the wince or from scrunching up her nose. A mile later, the two got out of the car, surveying the scene. (Deaton had left them to research, disappointed but not surprised that Jennifer didn't know how to kill the nemeton.) Main Street had scattered vehicles and bodies just beginning to smell in the midday sun, and Jennifer still couldn't believe this was real. She had done this. 

Kali either somehow smelled her guilt over the corpses, or just remembered her thought process well as she said, "C'mon, let's check out the nemeton. There's nothing for us here." 

They took the car even though Jennifer knew they should preserve gas, they shouldn't be wasting it driving around Beacon Hills. But Kali looked sick from the scent, and Jennifer wanted her out of there as quickly as possible. At least the nemeton wouldn't be full of dead bodies. 

As they drove away from the scent, Kali's nose stopped twitching, but she grew paler and her eyes unfocused. 

"Kali? You with me?" Jennifer asked, slowing down. 

"I... the nemeton's taking too much from me, I can't go closer," she murmured, her eyes drifting shut. 

Jennifer berated herself for not putting two and two together sooner- of _course_ the damn tree was stronger as you got closer to the base- and made a quick u-turn, driving back home quickly. With a grim humor, she thought it was convenient that no cops were around to pull her over for speeding. 

Kali's energy recovered by the time they got back to the apartment, but they still took it easy and lounged on the couch for a bit. 

"You didn't get tired," Kali said.

"I didn't," Jennifer confirmed, knowing what her bond with the nemeton might mean. 

Kali gave her a sad smile, and crawled into her lap, kissing away the thought. Her long fingers cupped Jennifer's face, and she couldn't recall the last time they had been so gentle with one another. Jennifer fell into the kiss, and into a fantasy where they moved away to a deserted island and never had to deal with other supernaturals- alive or dead.


	3. Famine

A week in the new Beacon Hills, and signs of scarcity were already beginning to pop up. It didn't matter that there was plenty of food for the amount of people left- it mattered that it was finite. During their second trip to the grocery store- an hour walk each way- Kali and Jennifer noticed the town was practically flipped upside-down and looted. They cleaned out the nonperishable section of the grocery store, and Kali even found some bacon that hadn't gone bad. (They both stayed far away from the fish counter.)

The next week most of their neighbors left, and Kali couldn't even walk into town anymore. Jennifer wanted to leave too- surely, soon enough the house would be too close, the roots too strong beneath them. 

But Kali reminded her Deaton knew where they were- they couldn't lose contact with him, not if Jennifer wanted a shot at ending this. She knows she should tell Kali to go without her, but she can't stand the thought of being in this ghost town alone or of Kali wandering the countryside aimlessly. Instead she watches the woman closely for signs of excessive fatigue, a half baked escape plan rising in the back of her mind.

She wonders if they went away to a deserted island, if the roots would reach them still. The fear that they might is the only thing keeping her here. Jennifer grows restless as Kali grows weaker, and she's searched every house for Deaton. She doesn't find him, instead she brings back cookies and chips for Kali, pretends that's why she went out. Kali probably sees through it, but she goes along with the charade.

Jennifer never sees anyone else on her outings. She's fairly certain she and Kali, and maybe Deaton, are the only ones left so close. She half-expects to trip over his corpse when searching. 

Her energy is growing, she's fairly sure it's a recent development. It's getting easier and easier to help Kali, zaps of energy passing through her fingertips. She doesn't let herself think of what could happen if she left her alone too long.

(The images haunt her nightmares more often than the countless humans she ended.)

Deaton visits again, two months after the nemeton began spreading. He hands her the purple and black dust, explaining its function efficiently and updating them before leaving the town, and most likely state. 

Word had come back from across the pond- the nemeton's roots had learned how to survive in saltwater, and humans had been declared extinct. Jennifer sits in a daze, her eyes locked on the jar of black and purple, Kali's words soothing but mostly unheard. 

"-need to do it soon." 

Jennifer frowns and nods, "I know. Can't let it get worse, or take you."

Kali chuckles at this, slowly swinging her long leg around to straddle Jennifer, "Oh yeah?" 

"Mhmm, pretty sure the silly plant won't though." 

Kali cocks her head, nails scraping up Jen's arms, "You think it's sentient." 

"Has to be," Jennifer murmurs. If it isn't, she's just going up against pure power that she's bonded to. If it isn't, there's no hope of her killing it, much less doing so without killing herself. If it isn't, it's just a matter of time before nothing sentient exists. The trees, she reminds herself, the trees are still alive.

Kali chases the thoughts away with a kiss, and then another, and another- until Kali isn't thinking of the nemeton at all. (Jennifer can't help but return to it, every touch is a reminder, every spark she lets flow into Kali.)


	4. War

"You're kidding," Kali says, lips pursed and examining her claws.

She's bright eyed and bushy tailed; the nemeton had been draining less power from the area ever since Deaton's dust rested on their coffee table. It's been longer than Jennifer intended- she did mean to stop it sooner- but when Kali started returning to her previous self, it was easier to ignore the dust. 

When Kali sleeps soundly by her side, she recalls it in vivid detail- she could count the grains if she wished. The plan had come to her with dawn, a way to bring back humanity to try and lessen the blow. All she had to do was beat the nemeton, the rest could work itself out.

It's only a band-aid to a bullet wound, she knows that. But Jennifer can't stand the thought of it all. Of the empty world, and Kali aimlessly wandering it. It might not be the best plan, but it would do.

And if she never came back, Kali wouldn't be alone. 

"Maybe you should consider it," Jennifer says, her voice carrying false levity. 

Kali's eyebrows rise, "Why would I do that?" 

"To save humanity?" Jennifer tries, picking at loose threads on her worn jeans. 

Kali snorts at that; "Got a better reason?" 

Jennifer's eyes flash, the bags below them giving her more age than the last ten years had, "I made humanity extinct Kali, if there's a way to bring it back it needs to be done." 

Kali sighs, "Okay, humor me babe. How many surviving she wolves are there?"

"How the hell-" Jennifer begins. 

"Guess, feel free to be optimistic," Kali says.

Jennifer shrugs, "A thousand tops."

Kali smiles sharply, "Let's say two kids per parent, that sounds reasonable, right?"

Jennifer snarks, "Sure, but some of them might refuse."

Kali just gives her an indulgent smile, "Let's pretend they don't. So two thousand. Now, they can only reproduce with non-human males and other werewolves will yield a higher chance of humans, at a 25% rate. Now, that's assuming these are turned wolves, obviously that rate goes down for born wolves, and even more for those with long lycanthropic lineages. So we're up to five hundred humans, and that's being very, very generous. Tell me Jennifer, do you think those humans will live long enough to repopulate the Earth?" 

Jennifer's fist slams down on the table, "For fuck's sake Kali, we need to at least _try_! Monsters can't rule the fucking world!" 

The light bulb goes off for Kali, and she feels torn between laughing and crying, "Jennifer, you're not a monster." 

"I killed over seven billion people," Jennifer answers frantically, "you don't- you _can't_ say that's not monstrous." 

Kali's slim and warm hands clasp Jennifer's shoulders, " _No_. You hit an invisible trip wire that no one knew about, that was planted hundreds of years ago. You want to blame someone, blame the delusional druid that thought wiping out humanity was a smart back up plan." 

Jennifer frowns, "Even if... We're still monsters at the end of the day. We're never going to be normal." 

Kali's hands drop, and she represses a growl, "No. We're not ever going to be normal if you're picking a human baseline. We're never going to live in a house with a white picket fence and two point five kids and a golden retriever. And y'know what? Even if that were a possibility, I wouldn't want it. I don't want normal Jen, I want _us_." 

"...I see," Jennifer concedes quietly, gnawing on her lower lip as she ponders.

"And Jen?" Kali adds, softer, standing up with a little stretch, "just think of how humans would be treated with the supernatural known and as them being the minority, it wouldn't be pretty."


	5. Conquest

Jennifer leaves before dawn breaks. If Kali lives, she doesn't want the last memory of them to be in a stilted good-bye. They'd never been good at those anyways.

She walks there, hitting the edge of the forest as morning warms. She didn't want to leave Kali without a vehicle, and she didn't feel much like driving a dead person's car. Every step closer, her power tingles, tightening and twirling in her core. Her body hums with it as she enters the wood and she glides to the old stump, only the cool glass reminding her she was here for something else.

It's more than tempting, and she sits on the nemeton, one hand grasping the jar and the other against wood. 

_You don't want to do this Jennifer._

The voice should surprise her, it should. But it doesn't, and she replies aloud as if she's talked with such entities before. 

"No. But I must." 

_For what though? No one will be saved by my end. You are no hero Jennifer._

Kali, she thinks, she has to do it for her at least. 

Laughter echoes though her palm, tingly and hot. _Only I can give you what you really want._

The old dream pops up before she can stop it, white picket fence and all. There's even barking, and Jen turns to see a gorgeous little husky puppy in Kali's arms. Her smile is wide and soft, and it jars Jen out of the fantasy: Kali hadn't smiled like that since she had her own pack.

Before she looses her nerve, Jennifer stands and circles the stump, a thick black and purple line enclosing it. 

_If you do this, I'll kill her._

She dumps the rest of the ash in the nemeton's center, and finds she can't leave the circle. 

_Now, now- we both know you're too selfish for this._

The lighter is heavy in her hand, promising. Her fingers fumble to get it going, the pad of her thumb rubbed raw easily. 

_You're a monster Jennifer. This won't change anything, you won't be remembered well. Maybe Julia wasn't a monster, but you **chose** this, you sacrificed a dozen people to me for power. You'll never be Julia again, **never** -_

Jennifer drops the lighter in the center pile, and a tall flame plumes up and out, fire before and surrounding her. The heat is terrible, but not as bad as the nemeton screaming in her mind, trying to get her to break the circle. Sitting, face in her hands, an inferno between her ears and before her, she almost laughs. Her last thought before the world fades to black is that at least she didn't have to watch Kali walk away again.

~~~

Her eyes crack open, too crusty to be death, and she's looking up at Kali. Her head's in Kali's lap she realizes with a jolt, and Kali's fingers are carding her hair.

"Hey, welcome back." 

"It's dead right?" 

"Not even ash is left, Deaton really meant all-consuming." 

"How...?" 

Kali's smile is bitter, "I followed you. I pulled you out when was too much. Your face, um, I'm sorry I wasn't faster." 

Her finger lightly outlines a circular shape on her cheek, and Jennifer almost rolls her eyes. There was no way it could be as bad as last time, as bad as-

"Why did you do it?" she asks quietly before she loses her nerve. 

"Same as you, power." 

The words are simple and Jen's stomach turns. It _wasn't_ power- it was revenge. It was getting Kali back. It was a swirl of emotions and righteous fury. 

It wasn't selfish. 

It _wasn't_. 

"You wanna see it?" Kali asks, clasping a hand mirror from the table.

"Sure." 

Jen holds it and confirms she was right with a smile, "Not nearly as bad as last time." 

"I'm sorry," Kali says for the first time about before.

Jennifer drops the mirror, and pulls Kali's face down. "I know," she says, and kisses Kali's answer off her lips.


End file.
